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Mr. Speaker, despite all my efforts, I find it difficult to answer a question about the Quebec government's areas of jurisdiction.
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Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, the Bloc Québécois sometimes confuses the responsibilities of the Government of Quebec with those of the Government of Canada. We are not responsible for education. Perhaps the Bloc Québécois wishes things were different, but education is not a federal government responsibility. My colleague might want to run for a seat in the Quebec National Assembly.
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Mr. Speaker, what a lucky coincidence that the Conservative leader is here today, because I am going to ask him to help me. We travelled all over the Quebec region, including my colleague's riding, to look for the six affordable housing units that the Conservative leader built across the country during his entire tenure, and we have yet to find them. Could he come to Quebec with me to look for the…
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Mr. Speaker, perhaps my colleague is aware that the reason we can talk about supply management in Canada is that 50 years ago, it was a Liberal government that introduced supply management for farmers in Quebec and across Canada. The reason we are still talking about it now is that, during negotiations with President Trump, it was a Liberal government that defended the interests of farmers by defe…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague, whom I hold in high esteem, mentioned the word “intolerable”. What is really intolerable is hearing the Conservative leader talk about the difficulties Quebeckers are facing and then announce that he is going to hurt them, punish them, by cutting the services and benefits they need, including the school food program. Would my colleague be willing to invite her Conservati…
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Mr. Speaker, the real scandal would be to give in to pressure from Conservative politicians to turn our country into a banana republic. They are trying to confuse the work of the RCMP, which is independent. The RCMP commissioner told us and even wrote to us saying not to meddle in his affairs because it will make his investigations more difficult. However, Conservative politicians refuse to listen…
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Mr. Speaker, this question has been answered a number of times already, but here is a question that has gone unanswered so far. Why does my colleague not invite the Conservative leader to talk to the 10,500 residents of his riding who received the new Canadian dental care plan card? Many thousands of them have already gone to the dentist, often for the first time in years. The Conservative leader,…
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Mr. Speaker, the member asks why. It is because we are not a banana republic. In Canada, politicians do not tell the RCMP what to do. Politicians have to listen to the RCMP. The RCMP has already spoken. It does not want those documents because of the risk it would run if it used them. In fact, its essential investigative work could be undermined if the banana republic politicians in the Conservati…
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Mr. Speaker, enough is enough, and 300 economists have said it. The rich pay more and middle-class Canadians pay less. Everyone gets the same rebate. The rich pay more than they receive. Middle-class Canadians receive more than they pay. It is that simple.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank and congratulate my NDP colleague from Montreal, as well as all the other NDP members, for their support of the Canadian dental care plan. Together, we have made a huge difference, not least for Quebeckers. Some 800,000 Quebec seniors now have a Canadian dental care plan card, and 250,000 have been able to access affordable dental care, in some cases for the firs…
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Mr. Speaker, with all due respect, my colleague talks about being unable to get things done. If there is anyone who is unable to get anything done for farmers and producers in Quebec, it is the leader of the Bloc Québécois, because he chose to be unable and to talk about sovereignty and independence instead of dealing with the urgent problems we are facing today. The whole reason supply management…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague is talking about responsibility. Here is what the RCMP commissioner has to say about responsibility: I would like to emphasize...that the RCMP is operationally independent and strictly adheres to the principle of police independence. In a free and democratic society, this ensures that the government [and the House] cannot direct or influence the actions of law enforcement…
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Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear. My colleague, the government House leader, has already clearly explained the situation. However, since the member is talking about the RCMP, I am going to read an important comment made by the RCMP commissioner, who said, and I quote: I would like to emphasize...that the RCMP is operationally independent and strictly adheres to the principle of police independenc…
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Mr. Speaker, our colleague is entirely right. That is why we have built tens of thousands of homes for indigenous Canadians and other Canadians in the last nine years. If we had built on the record of the Conservative leader, with six affordable apartments in his entire mandate, we would be a long way from what is needed for indigenous Canadians in 2024. In addition to that, as I said in French, t…
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Mr. Speaker, my answer is the same as the one that was just given. My colleague gave a great answer when she said not only that that we value supply management, but that it was a Liberal government and the Liberal Party that put it in place decades ago. We have always held the same positions, unlike some other members in the House. We defended supply management, including against President Trump, …
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Mr. Speaker, “ruthlessness” is indeed the Conservative policy for how to treat Quebec families, including in my colleague's riding. His Conservative leader thinks that helping families whose children go to school on an empty stomach in the morning and feeding them before school starts is bureaucracy. He said it is just bureaucracy. Would he like to invite his Conservative leader to explain to Mois…
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Mr. Speaker, our colleague is quite right to criticize the Conservatives' role in the fight for affordable housing. When he was minister responsible for housing across the country, the Conservative leader built six affordable housing units. My NDP colleague is also right to point out just how cynical the Conservative leader is. He says that helping seniors who live in low-income housing and co-ops…
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Mr. Speaker, my esteemed colleague talks a lot about struggling Canadians and Quebeckers. The Conservative leader's response is to punish them, to hurt them by cutting the benefits they need, including dental care for his constituents. Worse still, the Conservative leader wants to cancel a school food program to help children in elementary schools in his riding who go to school in the morning on a…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague has already answered that question several times. The member spoke about secrets. One thing that should not be kept secret is that, in his riding, 11,900 seniors have received their membership card for the new Canadian dental care plan. Meanwhile, his leader is saying that he cannot tell us why he is against the Canadian dental care plan because it does not exist. How wil…
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Mr. Speaker, I already spoke a few moments ago about how the Liberal Party, the Liberal government, has always supported supply management to protect farmers in Quebec and across the country. We have demonstrated that support on many occasions, including during the difficult negotiations with President Trump. We stood our ground. We were insistent. We won out against President Trump and succeeded …
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Mr. Speaker, if there is one thing that has increased in recent years, it is the Canadian government's investment in affordable housing. Before the member's arrival in the House of Commons, her Conservative leader, the chief insult-hurler, created a total of six affordable housing units during his entire time in office. In contrast, in her riding alone, 305 affordable housing units have been built…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague, whom I hold in high esteem, has been too generous to the Conservative Party leader. During his entire career as minister responsible for housing, he built six affordable housing units across the country. However, that does not stop the Conservative leader from telling Quebec municipalities they are incompetent even though they are building 8,000 affordable housing units.…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party has always supported supply management in Canada. It was actually a Liberal government that brought in supply management many years ago. We have always stood behind farmers. We also voted in favour of the bill on supply management. Senators know that they are independent, but they also know that they must do their job and carefully consider the House's point of view …
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservative leader was calling something bizarre. Let me tell him what is bizarre. So far, 2.4 million seniors in Canada have received their Canadian dental care plan card, including 800,000 in Quebec. Hundreds of thousands of people have already been able to receive affordable and accessible dental care, some of them for the first time in years. What is bizarre is that the Conse…
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservative leader mentioned picking fights. He is the one who insulted Quebec municipalities by calling them incompetent. Will he apologize for calling Quebec's municipalities and, indirectly, all their employees and the Government of Quebec, incompetent? Let us not forget that, during his term as minister responsible for housing, he built six affordable housing units.
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Mr. Speaker, you know that the Conservative leader built six affordable housing units during his entire tenure as minister responsible for housing. What is more, we searched for them all summer and could not find them. Then he added another layer, saying that building affordable housing, including for seniors, on federal property is a form of communism. The good news is that we are going to build …
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Mr. Speaker, that is an example of something that needs to be corrected. First, the volume of asylum claims from Mexico dropped by 75% in the span of a few months. Second, the number of asylum claims at Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport has dropped by 70% since February. Third, the number of asylum claims in Quebec has dropped by 42% since February. Fourth, the share of asylum seekers in Quebec compa…
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Mr. Speaker, the member is well aware that calling an election could result in the election of a government whose only policies right now involve insults, contempt and austerity. The Bloc Québécois will make its own choices. That being said, a few minutes ago, we were talking about carbon pricing. It is not hard to understand why eight out of 10 families get more back than they pay. The wealthy ar…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague is asking the Bloc Québécois why it hesitates to support the Conservative Party. It is obvious. Most Quebeckers, at least those in my riding, dislike the Conservative Leader's insults, contempt and cuts approach to politics. They want none of it. My colleague, the member, will have to explain to the Bloc Québécois why it should join forces with a party that lets people tr…
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Mr. Speaker, immigration requires collaboration and co-operation. We live in Canada. We carry Canadian passports. Clearly, the Canadian government must play a collaborative role in immigration. The good news is that things are going well and getting better. We urge Mr. Legault to get his act together. He was too quick to speak out in the past few days, saying that no measures had been taken in rec…
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Mr. Speaker, one, two, three, four, five, six affordable housing units is what the Conservative leader built during his entire tenure as the minister responsible for housing. Even so, he calls Quebec's municipalities incompetent despite the fact that they are currently building 8,000 affordable housing units across Quebec under the historic agreement we signed. Quebec municipalities do not need le…
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Mr. Speaker, Bloc MPs and other members in the House can choose to sabotage the Canadian government's efforts to help seniors in their own ridings. There are 7,400 seniors enrolled in the Canadian dental care plan in my colleague's riding. In many cases, this is the first time in many years that these seniors are receiving accessible and affordable dental care. When it comes to investments in hous…
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservative leader has a big problem. He claims to be among the world's leading economists on monetary policy, when he has not even read the beginning of the first chapter of an Economics 101 textbook on monetary policy. If he had, he would know that, when it comes to preventing inflation and helping the central bank reduce interest rates, one of the fundamental rules of monetary…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, who is a true champion of affordable and social housing in Quebec. He knows as well as I do that, although the Conservative leader is very, very good at hurling insults, his Conservative policy would be very, very bad for Quebeckers. He keeps attacking Quebec municipalities and calling them incompetent, when they are in the process of building 8,000 affordable ho…
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Mr. Speaker, what is bad for Quebeckers, including young Quebeckers, are the insults, lies and austerity that the Conservative leader keeps promoting. That is what he does every day. He wants to make cuts, including cuts to housing investments that young Quebeckers need. Not only is the Conservative leader calling everyone, including Quebec's municipalities, incompetent, but he also wants to rip u…
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Mr. Speaker, the reality is that immigration and citizenship are federal responsibilities, and we work with the provinces and territories. If citizenship were under provincial jurisdiction, that would be a different story, but Canada is still a country. The good news is that we are working very closely and effectively with the Quebec government on numerous immigration and asylum seeker issues, and…
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Mr. Speaker, while there is, indeed, much to say about the Conservatives' hidden agenda, I will leave it to the Conservatives to talk about their increasingly not-so-hidden hidden agenda. We will talk about something more relevant to members from Quebec, at least in the context of the question, and that is the relationship with the Government of Quebec. Over the past few weeks, we have made three …
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Mr. Speaker, all government organizations, all departments, all Crown corporations and all agents working for the Canadian government have the same responsibility to respect the Access to Information Act, and that is what is expected in this case too.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservative leader obviously still does not understand the rules of the House, even after being here for 20 years. Another thing that he still does not understand is the importance of dental care for Quebeckers. He is talking about hurting Quebeckers. What is he telling Quebeckers in my region? He is telling them not to enrol in the Canadian dental care plan because it does not e…
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Mr. Speaker, one, two, three, four, five, six affordable homes. That is all the Conservative leader and chief insult-hurler built across the country during his entire time as minister responsible for housing. We spent all summer looking for those six units. We have yet to find them. In contrast, 160 affordable housing units have been built in the member's own riding in just the last few months, in…
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Mr. Speaker, I worked in academia in Quebec for a long time. I know how hard the university community, university administrations, faculty members and department heads work to hire people based on merit. We know that diversity makes our universities strong everywhere in Canada, including Quebec. That is why we will always work with the Government of Quebec, with all those who fight against discrim…
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Mr. Speaker, that is utter nonsense. The member opposite is talking about how hard it is for people to feed their kids, how too many kids are going to school hungry in the morning and yet, last week, his Conservative leader said it would merely feed bureaucracy to support community organizations, including those in my colleague's riding, that help kids go to school in the morning on a full stomach…
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Mr. Speaker, incompetence is talking about how children are going to school hungry in the morning and then preventing the Canadian government, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois from supporting those children. Is my colleague open to coming with me to Moisson Québec and the Granit food bank in his riding to explain to them why it is bureaucratic to help children learn better at school and get to schoo…
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Mr. Speaker, our congratulations to the member for Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel on the remarkable success of the Canadian dental care plan in her riding, which mirrors the success of the 750,000 Canadians who have been able to receive dental care in recent months. We also offer our congratulations to the Conservative member for Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis for taking the top prize, with 18,000 se…
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Madam Speaker, we know how important it is to help seniors, especially after the pandemic. The good news is that 12 out of the 22 projects in Quebec have been approved. Now there are 10 left. All the Government of Quebec has to do is press the “M‑30 button” and the money will flow to the community organizations in her riding and many other ridings. Once it is done, the community organizations in Q…
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Madam Speaker, I am a bit surprised. We just heard that supporting seniors should not be the Canadian government's job and that members of the House should not be helping seniors in their ridings. All that seems rather strange and surprising to me in a discussion about helping seniors. All members of the House have a responsibility to help seniors. In this case, it is very easy. People need to cal…
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Madam Speaker, if there is one thing that is easy to do, it is to engage in divisive politics. Dividing Canadians and Quebeckers is very simple. It can be done quite easily. What is harder and more important is bringing people together. All of us in this House have the responsibility and the opportunity to unite, whether we are Quebeckers of one origin or another, white or Black, male or female, w…
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Madame Speaker, my colleague spoke about feeding his Conservative leader's ego. The Conservative leader had a brilliant idea about two days ago, when he said that helping children go to school in the morning on a full stomach is all about feeding bureaucracy. He said that helping children who have no food to fill their bellies before learning is simply about feeding bureaucracy. Are we talking abo…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to mention three things. First, we increased assistance for seniors aged 75 and up. As my colleague may know, even if it is not from personal experience, when people age, their needs increase and their income goes down. They find it more difficult to work and have to pay more for medication, housing and transportation. Second, we have always said that we will continue t…
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Madam Speaker, as my colleague may know, I worked in academia for a long time. Quebec universities are known across Canada and around the world for the remarkable level of expertise they have achieved. I have every confidence in the ability of Quebec universities to make the right decisions. They make them based on their employees' skills, but also based on diversity, which is important to have in…
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